Chandpur univ: 139 deeds out of malafide intention

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin yesterday told the High Court that 139 deeds were registered with malafide intentions to embezzle public money in the name of land acquisition for the proposed Chandpur Science and Technology University.

He said this while placing arguments on two separate writ petitions filed by Salim Khan, a local union parishad chairman in Chandpur, his family members and one Jewel.

The writ petitioners registered the deeds using fabricated documents with the price of the land hugely inflated, which is tantamount to fraudulence with the relevant law, the attorney general said citing relevant documents and papers.

Amin Uddin also told the HC that the writ petitioners should be fined for submitting such a misconceived petition, which is not acceptable.

They submitted writ petitions in November last year with the HC challenging different issues including the government's decision to not consider their deeds and the Chandpur deputy commissioner's action to assess the actual price of the land through a committee, Deputy Attorney General Kazi Mynul Hassan told The Daily Star.

The HC bench of Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir Lytton is set to resume the hearing on the petitions today.

Contacted, the attorney general refused to make any comment.

Writ petitioners' lawyer Ajmalul Hossain could not be reached for his comments.

DAG Kazi Mynul Hassan told The Daily Star that a section of influential people including Salim Khan, his family members and Jewel, arbitrarily inflated the price of the 62.5-acre land in Chandpur where the university is planned to be built.

The DC of Chandpur accurately assessed the price of the land through a committee, he said, adding that the government would have had to spend Tk 359 crore more than the actual price if it went by the deeds.

The writ petitioners have submitted multiple applications to the education ministry to set up the CSTU in the land for which they registered the deeds.

The DAG also said that, following the writ petitions, the HC in November last year issued two separate rules questioning the government's decisions of not considering the deeds.